8Y P. GRAY MEEK.
Ink Slings.
—The Democrats now know exactly how
FARR they were from successful fusion in
the House organization.
—Up to this writing Mr. MAGEE has
failed to give any sign that he would refuse
to fuse with the senatorial lightning.
—1If vou have made any New Years reso-
lutions, remember to stick to them long
enough to tell all your friends of your
good intentions.
— The ‘“‘warm satisfaction,” the ‘‘old
man’’ is expressing over the senatorial sit-
uation stands a great chance of receiving a
chill from the returns yet to come in.
— It must have been smokeless powder
the enemy were using or Mr. QUAY might
have discovered the havoc that was being
made in his ranks before his caucus met.
—It looks a little scaly for the ‘‘old
man’’ at Harrisburg, but don’t you think
some of those Republicans who didn’t go
into the caucus are just ‘‘waiting to be
seen?’’
—Wouldn’t it be just as reasonable to
ask fifty-four Independents, to vote for a
Democrat for United States Senator as it is
to ask eighty-seven Democrats to vote for
an Independent for the same office?
—There will be a STONE at Harrisburg
soon who won’t be allowed to gather much
moss. Between QUAY and his henchmen
the new Governor will be kept rolling so
fast that he won’t get anything. The
boys will be in for it all.
* Little microbes go floating round, this
measly, slushy weather; looking for a
lung, unsound, in which to get together.
They find it soon, and in they slip, these
pesky bacilli, no sooner there than you’ve
the grip and are feeling rather illy.
—If Governor HASTINGS had only been
as wise on going into office as he is in com-
ing out we might have had some sugges-
tions of reforms that he could have assisted
in accomplishing. Still it is better to have
even the suggestions than nothing.
—1Is it possible that the foxy old boss of
Republican politics foresaw the time when
he would be caught up shaking the plum
tree and had a STONE put into the guber-
natorial chair, so that he can shy it at the
fruit when shaking is no longer possible?
—How about it, Mr. HARRIS, Member of
the Legislature from Clearfield county,
didn’t the convention that nominated you
pledge you to the support of Col. E. A.
IRVIN for United States Senator? Don’t
tell us now that Republican pledges in
Clearfield don’t go.
—Governor HASTINGS last message to
the Legislature isa dreadful arraignment
of his party, but it loses much of its force
because the Governor knew just as well at
his inauguration as he does now of the
rottenness of things, yet he failed to cor-
rect, himself, what he now urges others
to do.
—Admiral DEWEY might start a cloth:
ing manufactory after he is retired from
the navy. If heis going to keep all his
namesakes in pants it will be necessary to
ran a plant of his own. Why over in
Clearfield county, alone, there have been
thirty-one DEWEYS ‘‘happened’”’ within
the last six months.
——The business man who would pay
an exhorbitant price for that which he did
not need, could not use, and would only
prove a bill of expense, would very soon be
considered a fit subject for a lunatic asylum.
And yet that is exactly the position of the
expansionists in their efforts to hold on to
the Philippine islands.
—“‘Frosty’”’ GILKESON has parted com-
pany with the Governor. The former
banking commissioner is super-sensitive.
Such a little thing as not "being tendered
the appointment of a judgeship ought not
to have made him so warm. He didn’t
resign from the Republican party when it
declined to tender him the state chairman-
ship. Then, too, can it be that he is so
obtuse as not to see that he is better off not
to have been tendered the place at all than
to have had the tender only with the un-
derstanding that it be declined—as was the
case in one of the other instances.
The President claims that we should
hold on to the Philippine islands because
the American flag is there. If that is so,
why in the name of uncle SAM and uncle
SAM’S interests, do we pay $20,000,000 for
that which the ‘‘honor of cur flag,’’ com-
pels us to hold? Either the flag has no
right there, or it kas. If it has then it
should be kept there without buying the
privilege to have it wave over people that
know or care nothing about it. If it has
not, it is wrong to keep it there under any
excuse. Evidently the President’s logic
needs repairing or his political policy would
be improved by a change.
—The Philadelphia Record figures out
that any ‘‘business founded upon a bounty
system is bound to come down with a rush
as soon as the artificial props shall be pull-
ed away.” While our esteemed contem-
porary draws its deduction from a purely
local illustration, 1t is none the less logical.
Bounties, subsidies or prizes to encourage
any business are barmful in the end and
for that reason we do not believe the Pres-
ident’s plan for building up a great mer-
chant marine service for American ships is
a substantial one. Pass laws that will put
American shipping on the same basis as
that of foreign countries but hold out no
baits, the ultimate withdrawal of which
will cause the business to collapse like a
pricked bubble.
OL. 44
BE
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
.LLEFONTE, PA., JANUARY 6, 1899.
NO. 1
The Opportunity.
The failure of the friends of Senator
QUAY to induce a sufficient number of Re-
publicans to attend the senatorial caucus to
insure the election of its choice, will awak-
en the people of the State to a realization
of the fact that the defeat of the senior Sen-
ator, as a successor to himself, is, at least,
possible of accomplishment. Heretofore
the belief has been that the Republican op-
position to his return was not of that
earnestness that would defy the dictates of
a caucus, or dare the reproaches that such a
course would bring from the bosses. But
the action of the 54 Senators and Members,
in refusing to become a party to a caucus
proceeding that was intended solely to tie
them up to the support of Senator
QUAY, and thus insure his re-election and a
prolongation of his dictatorial and corrupt
rule, dissipates that belief and leaves a
hope for the people of better things for the
future.
That Senator QUAY ought to be defeated
is beyond question. That he may be is the
earnest hope of every man who has the
welfare and good name of the Common-
wealth at heart. That he will be, however,
is an entirely different matter, and one
which will depend largely, if not exclu-
sively, upon the position taken and main-
tained by two-thirds of the 54 Senators and
Members who refused to participate in the
QUAY caucus. If they are in earnest in
their avowed purpose of reform and willing
that the defeat of Senator Quay shall end
the pernicious system of politics that he
has resorted to. in Pennsylvania; shall
break up the rings that have robbed the
State; shall put an end to the abuses the
State has suffered and the disgraces it has
born in consequence of his methods and his
rule, and shall secure to the people a
chance to control their own offices—in fact
if it shall end QUA Yism as well as QUAY,—
then it can and should be accomplished.
But if their object is only to change bosses;
to rally the old rings and the old roosters
around a new leader, who, under a pretense
of opposition to QUAY, seeks the place to
continue QUAY methods and QUAY abuses;
then it will not and should not succeed.
It will take only a short time to prove if
the purpose of the independent Republicans
is to secure the reforms demanded both in
senatorial representation and Pennsylvania
political methods, or only a change in
bosses. I'he character and antecedents of
the candidate they present, or are willing
to unite upon, will determine this.
As a Democrat and speaking for the large
body of Democrats who feel as we do, we
believe that every concession, consistent
with party honor, should be made for the
public good. If, after an honest and fair
effort to secure the election of a positive
and reliable Democrat, qualified to hold
the position, it is found that it cannot be
accomplished, then there should be no
hesitancy in joining with the independent
Republicans in electing some one who
would be broad and patriotic enough to
give us at least fair representation and de-
cent treatment in the United States Senate;
who would aid in breaking up the power
of the rings and roosters that have disgraced
the State and robbed its people for years
and who would assist, with all the power
the position would give him, in restoring
honest government and the rule of the peo-
ple in Pennsylvania.
It might not be easy, in the opinion of
many, to find such a man outside of the
active workers in the Democratic party.
But there should be such, and we believe
there are, and that in the condition of
affairs that now confronts us they will be
brought to the front hefore this matter is
determined.
If the Independents are honest, we now
have it within our power to assist in ac-
complishing that which we have been strug-
gling for for years—the defeat of the boss
and the curtailment of his power to keep
Pennsylvania in the clutches of the ring-
sters who have disgraced and dishonored
its administration, defied its constitution
and defrauded its people for years.
Will we have the courage and patriotism
to do it?
——After all, some good may come out
of the delay in the trial of the QUAY con-
spiracy case. So longas that trial is hang-
ing fire, there is but little danger that the
state funds will be used for the same pur-
poses for which the Senator is to answer be-
fore the courts. The state plum tree will
get a rest, and there will be but few crops
gathered by. those who fatten on what falls
until after this trial is had.
—Mrs. BoTKIN can thank her stars that
it isn’t the fashion to hang wbmen in fiat
‘‘glorious climate of California.” If it had
been she would have gotten it where the
chicken got the ax. Asit is she is to spend
the rest of her life in prison for Killing
the DUNNINGS, in Dover, Del., with
poisoned candy.
~——Subscribe for the WATCHMAN.
Who Has Been Swindled ?
One of the biggest deals in the unseated lands
in Centre county has just been completed with
the entering for record in the recorder’s office
here of 28 mortgages, aggregating $250,000, as
security for the net sum of $125,000. At the com-
missioner’s sale of unseated lands in April, 1892,
Rensselaer Sims, of Troy, N. Y., and Theodore
Vail, of Philadelphia, were present, and for the
nominal sum of $267 purchased 38 tracts, with an
aggregate of 11,715 acres. Commissioner's deeds
for the same were at once secured and placed on
record, the entire cost to the investors being not
more than $500. It ison this land that they bave
just succeeded in placing the mortgages as given
above.— Exchange.
Inquiry at the recorder’s office proves the
foregoing to be correct.
That the fools are not all dead, or that
somebody, has been, or is to be swindled,
is just as apparent as is the fact of the
recording of the above mortgages. As to
the details of the transaction that hassecur-
ed the loans they represent, or the purposes
of the investment of so large an amount of
money in the reality given as security we
know nothing, nor do we care outside of the
suspicions that these mortgages are to make
a basis for a larger swindle upon the pub-
lic, than they are upon the parties who ac-
cepted them. In this case it is our business,
as well as that of everyone else knowing any-
thing about them, to expose their worthless-
ness, that the unthinking and unknowing
may not be deceived by them.
If the amount of money named was
loaned by an individual on the security
these tracts of land furnish, it simply shows
what fools exist, and what idiots are in
possession of money: if by an estate, its
manager or trustee must be either a
swindler or utterly unfit for his position,
and if by a company or corporation it is
evidence of a rottenness that should be
exposed before it has the power to dupe
and rob the public.
As to either of the two first interests it
is neither our business to bother nor our
concern to care. Individuals or estates,
idiotic or reckless enough to make such in-
vestments, deserve the return they will get
when they come to realize on them—and
that will be simply nothing. .
It is in the fact that these mortgages will,
in all probability, turn up as a part of the
assets of some insurance company, some
building and loan association, banking in-
stitution or trust company, that most in-
terests the public, and if they do it will be
the most positive evidence of the utter
worthlessness and rottenness of such con-
cern. The difficulty will be, however, to
ascertain what company or corporation is
doing business on such a basis, for the or-
ganization that is villainous enough to at-
tempt to deceive. the public with such
assets would be sharp enough to hide their
character under the head of some general
statement.
The cold facts are that the property
covered by these mortgages which, some-
where in the business of this country, are
made to represent a value of a quarter of a
million of dollars, is worth little if any
more than the fees paid for recording the
documents. This may be considered a wild
statement but it is an undeniable fact.
Three-fourths of the titles represent tracts
that have no existence, while the balance,
if they can be found, will be discovered to
be absolutely and totally worthless—
no timber on them—no minerals under
them; simply bleak, rocky hills or
soilless, bracken covered flats that no one,
who knows their value, would pay the
taxes assessed against them to own.
We only refer to this to show how easily
some people are fooled, and how necessary
it is for the public to know, and KNow
well, the standing of companies and corpora-
tions to which they entrust their money or
pay for carrying their risks on life and
property.
An Object Lesson for Democrats,
Our Democratic friends over in Clearfield
county have now an opportunity to realize
to the fullest extent what factional quarrels
and petty jealousies among leaders will re-
sult in. On Monday last, the first time
since the organization of the county, the
Republicans came into full control of every
office within it. Not a single position from
judge down to county surveyor, except a
commissioner and auditor which the law
gives to the minority party, is now held by
a Democrat. It is but a few years since
Clearfield was one of the most reliable
Democratic counties in the State. It had
an efficient organization and harmonious
leadership, and could be counted upon at
all elections for a Democratic majority of
from 1,500 to 2,000. Only eight years ago
Governor PATTISON carried that county by
over 2,300, and we doubt if to-day there are
one hundred persons within it who voted
for him, who are now Republicans at heart, or
vote that ticket because they believe in the
principles of that party. Norare the people
of the county one whit less Democratic
than then. The sole troubles have been the
inefficient party management that allowed
the opposition to naturalize and take
charge of the foreign vote, and the personal
bickering and the petty jeaousies of those
who aspire to party leadership.
And as the result was last fall so will it
be for years to come, unless those who are
responsible for the wreck that has been
made of the Clearfield Democracy bury
their personal grievances and jealousies of
each other, or are set aside by the Demo-
cratic people. Clearfield is Democratic to-
day if those who aspire to the control of
the organization will only allow it to be so.
It may not be as largely Democratic as it
was under the wise and conservative advice
of Governor BIGLER or the vigorous and
effective management of Senator WALLACE,
but still its people are Democratic, its sen-
timent is Democratic, and it would now be
a Democratic county bat for the bickerings
of those who should work together, and
that pettiness of principle among leaders
that defeats the party unless they, individ-
ually, can control it.
It is possible that the condition that now
faces the Democracy of our neighboring
county may bring about a different state
of affairs. It may open the eyes of the
honest Democratic voters to see the folly of
being used as tools by those who care more
for their individual aspirations than the
party’s good, and it may arouse them to
the necessity of demanding of those who
assume to be leaders, that they either bury
their personal animosities or take back
seats when the management of party affairs
is being considered. If a court house full
of Republican officials does this, it may
prove of some service to the people after
all.
Evidences of Republican Rascality.
Any one who will take the time to read
the few extracts we print from the Govern-
or’s message to the Legislature, will see in
them a verification of the charges the Dem-
ocrats have for years been making about
the mismanagement of the affairs of the
State, as well as the urgent necessity for
immediate and sweeping reforms in these
matters. It is not probable that as bitter
and confirmed a partisan as the present Re-
publican Governor is would arraign the
management of a political administration,
of which he sa part, and point out the
wrongs it is committing, as he does, if they
did not exist or were not both flagrant and
palpable. If he is correct, and no one will
doubt that he is, what kind of a people
must Pennsylvanians be who go to the polls,
year iter year, and willingly and knowing-
ly vote to continue these wrongs?
It has been years since the Democrats
began pointing out the evils that were bred
and nurtured by the present system of state
treasury management and which a Repub-
lican Governor now admits and calls atten-
tion to ; it has been years since they have
been demanding a re-apportionment of the
State in order that constitutional represen-
tation would be secured to all sections, and
for two years they have warned the people
of the robbery that will be committed
and the wrongs that will be perpetrated
in the erection of the new capitol buildings
if allowed to remain under the control of
the ring that has charge of it. But for
some unaccountable reason, for some un-
explained cause, they preferred to continue
these wrongs and take the chances of being
robbed, rather than break up the political
dynasty that has ruled and disgraced the
State for so long a time. With a full
knowledge of these abuses, wrongs and
thefts they voted for their continuation by
voting for the creatures of the bosses con-
trolling the actions of the party under
whose management they were committed;
and when the people vote to endorse this
kind of mal-administration and wrong
doing it is not to be wondered at that it
exists and flourishes.
If there is any one who has been in the
habit of voting the Republican ticket and
who tries to relieve his conscience by an
attempt to believe that the charges made
by Democrats, of treasury mismanagement
and other Republican wrongs, are mere
political clap-trap, we ask him to read the
evidence of their truthfulness, furnished by
a Republican Governor and then to
remember that there will be an opportunity
to correct these wrongs, at least so far as
the state treasury is concerned, in less than
a year from this time.
A Short Lived Boom.
The boom for our good friend Col. E."A.
IRVIN, of Clearfield, for United States Sen-
ate, seems to have met with a premature, if
not untimely, ending. The Republican
Representatives from that county were in-
structed and pledged to vote for him for
that position. In the Republican sena-
torial caucus held in Harrisburg, on Tues-
day evening, one of those Representatives
participated, and pledged himself, by that
participation, to vote for QUAY. The other
Member failed to put in an appearance,
but neither inside the caucus nor outside
of it do we see that any effort, whatever,
has been made by either of these represent-
atives to place the Colonel in a position to
be voted for. Of course it is none of our
political business, but all the same it is a
queer condition of affairs when a county
will elect and instruct its Representatives
to do a certain thing and then permit them
to forget what they were elected to do in so
short a time as it has been since the elec-
tion. If such a betrayal of a trust had been
made by Representatives of the people over
this way it would have created a hotness
along their political pathway compared to
which future roasting would prove temper-
ate and bearable.
Governor Hastings’ Message.
Admissions of Democratic Charges.—Wrongs in the
Management of the State Treasury.—Robbery in
the Erection of the New State Capitol.—Apportion-
ment Should be Made and the Election Laws
Amended.
Governor Hastings in his last message to
the state Legislature to-day, after submit-
ting a report of the public debt and sum-
mary of the revenue and expenditures for
the fiscal year ending November 30th, 1898
in which the reverues are placed at $13,-
325,120.17, the expenditures $13,973,803.-
46, and in the debt, $1,025,981.93, of which
no part can be paid until 1912, says:
The management of the state treasury
has, for many years, been the subject of
public criticism. While it may be true
the State has lost no moneys deposited in
the various banks throughout the Common-
wealth, it cannot be questioned that in the
past the public funds have been used for
political purposes by depositing them in
favorite banks, where such deposits were
expected to yield returns in the shape of
political influence. This system cannot be
defended. It should not be in the power
of any man to say what banks shall handle
the millions of dollars that are annually
paid into the state treasury. It would be
far better for the State to receive no inter-
est upon deposits rather than to suffer a
system to continue which can be used for
political purposes, and it is submitted that
the evil will never be corrected until the
State keeps its own money in its own
vaults, as do many of the States and as is
done by the United States. Legislation of
this character would be to the interest of
all the people and a step toward better
government. :
If it be argued that this course would be
locking up the public funds and taking
them out of circulation, the answer is that
the moneys should be promptly paid out
to the schools and penal and charitable in-
stitutions and the cities and counties that
are entitled to them, according to law. If
this were done, the balance remaining in
the treasury from time to time would not
be large.
® * *
ELECTION OF UNITED STATES SENATORS.
The Legislatures of California, Colorado,
Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michi-
gan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Neva-
da, Ohio, Utah and Wyoming have adopted
resolutions urging upon Congress favorable
consideration of an amendment to the fed-
eral constitution by which the qualified
voters of each State shall he authorized to
select their representatives in the Senate of
the United States by direct vote of the
people, the same as our governors judges
and state officers. Similar action is urged
upon your honorable bodies. Such an
amendment passed the national Honse of
Representatives at its last session by an al-
most unanimous vote.
In many States where Senators were re-
cently elected, if qualified voters had been
clothed with the power of election, the
disgrace and humiliation occasioned hy the
deplorable conduct of members of such
Legislatures would have heen avoided.
Why should United States Senators be the
only exception to the American rule of the
majority? No candidate for office should
be unwilling to submit his record to a vote
of the people. If senatorial aspirants can-
not trust the pecple with their records,
how can the people be expected to have
confidence in the Senate?
THE STATE CAPITOL.
After giving in detail the history of the
break between himself and the building
commission of the state Capitol over the
question of .plans and architect, the Gover-
nor says the four commissioners in
their answer to the bill in equity filed by
the Attorney General stated that ‘‘although
the contract which they proposed to let
would not complete the capital building,
yet they proposed to let other contracts for
its‘completion, and promised the court that
it wonld be a complete, separate and in-
dependent structure in compliance with
all the requirements of the act of Assembly.
Three of the commissioners, Amos H.
Mylin, Benjamin J. Haywood and Samuel
J. M. McCarrell, upon oath, stated that,
under their plan of construction the build-
ing would be complete and fit for occupancy
within the amount of the appropriation.
The court in rendering its decision accept-
ed their promise.’’
“I now aver,” continues the Governor,
‘“‘that the four members of the commission
have utterly failed to carry out their sworn
promise to the court and that they have
acted in flagrant disregard of the act of
Assembly. The structure in which you
are assemblying to-day is unworthy of your
honorable bodies and is a disgrace to the
Commonwealth. In its present condition
it is hardly fit for human bhabita-
tion, much less the official abode of the
representatives of the great Commonwealth.
The act requires that the building ‘‘shall
be built in that phase of the renaissance
style of architecture known as the colonial .”’
This structure beats no more resemblance
to colonial architecture than does the
Egyptian Sphinx. There are scores of
farmers’ barns in Pennsylvania more at-
tractive in appearance than this building.
It is made of common brick embedded in
cheap mortar, looks like a hastily erected
factory building and is repulsive to the
eye.
$2,500,000 TO COMPLETE IT.
“The roof is made of hemlock and pine
boards covered with tarred felt, pitch and
sand: the gables and dome are covered
with third-rate quality of pine fencing
boards; and the floors are made of common
pine boards which give under the feet.
The stairs and stair-cases, including the
main entrance, are all of wood, and the
partitions between the rotunda and west
wings and upper floors are of seven-eights
inch matched pine fencing, and the same
material is placed in front of the elevator
shafts. Only about one-fifth of the entire
building is plastered at all and such as is
plastered is of two-coat work. There is no
plastering whatever in the halls of the
Senate and the House of Representatives.
The Senate chamber walls are finished with
burlap stained green fastened to the rough
sides of the wall composed of brick and
Concluded on page 4.
Spawls from the Keystone.
—DMoses Frezinski, of Shenandoah, bought
a cow for $10, and a few hours after it be-
came his property he was sentenced to pay
$10 fine and $8.80 costs for twisting its tail.
—While George Pease, of Penfield, was
digging a rabbit out of a hole in the woods a
few days ago, his dog began frisking around
when he knocked his owner’s gun off’ a log.
The weapon was discharged and the shot tore
off one of George's fingers and badly lacerat-
ed his hand.
—Altoona’s board of trade started out some
time ago to raise a fund of ten thousand dol-
lars as a nucleus with which to start a manu-
facturing boom in the mountain city. Ata
meeting of the board Monday evening com-
mittees reported the sum of $7,757 already
raised.
—A fatal affray occurred at Irvona, in
Clearfield county, Friday night, in which
young Edward Ricketts lost his life. It is
alleged that Jim Killin attacked Ricketts
with a curtain pole and beat him so that he
died. Killin, who is under $2,000 bail on
another charge, has left the country and can-
not be found.
—W. D. Wood, a prominentiron manu-
facturer of Pittsburg, died on Monday from
the effects of grip, after an illness of ten
days. Mr. Wood who was a member of
one of Philadelphia’s best families, was
73 years old and for many years has been
one of Pittsburg’s leading manufacturers.
—An Italian, Amelia Garbanio, is in jail at
Ebensburg on a charge of swindling. It is
charged that he drepped a $100 bill in front
of an unwary Polander and then, taking the
latter into his confidence and agreeing to di-
vide with the Polander, induced the latter
to give him $50 in change for it.
—The saw mill of Ezra Canfield’s Sons,
below Williamsport, was destroyed by fire
Monday evening. The mill had been run-
ning all season, but had closed last Tuesday.
None of the lumber in the yards was burned.
The mill loss, however, will run over $12,-
000. Between fifty and sixty men were em-
ployed while it was in operation,
—There will be five eclipses during the
year 1899, three of the sun and two of the
moon, as follows: A partial eclipse of the
sun, January 11; a partial eclipse of the sun,
June 7; a total eclipse of the moon, June 23;
an annular eclipse of the sun, December 2;
a partial eclipse of the moon, December 16.
—James L. Mitchell, at one time one of the
heaviest operators in the Clearfield coal re-
gion, and who still has interests in the Osce-
ola district, but whose most extensive opera-
tions are now in Cambria county, has taken
hold of Eureka No. 14, formerly known as
Laurel Run mine, at one time owned by
John Nuttall & Co., and recently abandoned
by the Berwin White Co.
—The official report from Rome confirming
the appointment of Rev. John W. Shanahan
as bishop of the Harrisburg diocese, to suc-
ceed the late Bishop McGovern, has been re-
ceived by Archbishop Ryan at Philadelphia.
The new bishop has for years been rector of
the Church of Our Mother of Sorrows and
superintendent of parochial schools in the
archdiocese of Philadelphia.
—An aged woman stopped a retired busi-
ness man of Ebensburg a few days ago on the
street and handed him $2.50 which she owed
him. The man protested that he knew
nothing about it, but the old woman insisted
that it was correct and he took the money.
He afterwards hunted wup his books and
found that it was for a pair of shoes sold over
forty years ago, when the woman was a girl
living in Ebensburg.
—The boiler of an engine on the Philadel-
phia and Reading railway blew up near Bow-
er’s station, a short distance from Reading,
Tuesday, instautly killing engineer William
Weaver and probably fatally injuring con-
ductor Joshua Robeson. The engine was
drawing an extra freight at the time of the
explosion and the unfortunate men, together
with two others, were on the locomotive at
the time of the explosion.
—ALl Jones, aged about 30 years, of Alex-
andria, was drowned in the Juniata river
near his home Monday while skating. His
family knew he was on the ice, and because
of his failure to return at the luncheon hour
some apprehension was felt concerning his
safety. A search was immediately institut-
ed. Lying on the ice and beside a great hole
the young man’s gloves were picked up. A
more vigorous search resulted in the finding
of his dead body some distance down the
stream.
—A few evenings ago a number of persons
at Rockwood, Somerset county, gathered in
one of the bar-rooms in that place and were
spending the evening in drinking. At a
late hour a dispute arose between Jerry
Koontz and William Bracken, who were em-
ployed as trackmen on the Somerset and
Cambria railroad. A desperate fight between
the men shortly followed their war of words
in which young Bracken received very ser-
ious if not fatal injuries. He was cut across
the right side of the face and across the
throat, the wound escaping the jugular only
by a hair’s breadth.
—The Bedford county smallpox scare re-
fuses to down. Dr. Benjamin Lee gives out
that Dr. Atkinson after making a thorough
investigation of the conditions existing in
Bedford county reports that ‘‘the disease is
spreading rapidly, but the country physi-
cians deny that there is smallpox. Dr. At-
kinson hired a wagon and toured through
the whole country. In one instance he
found a school teacher who had the disease
in its most flagrant form. The country phy-
sician whom the teacher had consulted de-
nied that it was a case of smallpox. Dr.
Atkinson had the greatest difficulty to pre-
vent this man from going to school to teach.”
—A boy named Smeal, while walking
through the woods near Wallaceton, ten
miles from Clearfield, Monday morning
found an unknown man hanging lifeless and
frozen stiff from the limb of a tree. Coroner
Currier was notified, summoned a jury and
Meld an inquest. The stranger had taken off
his trousers, cut off each leg of his drawers
and made a stout rope, which he tied around
his neck and to the tree. When found he was
almost in a sitting position, the limb having
bent. No one could throw any light on the
identity of the suicide. He was about 30
years old, five feet nine inches in height,
had sandy hair and mustache, weighed about
170 pounds, and was well dressed. There
were no papers or marks on his person.